[2] Having saved enough money to go to Britain, initially with the intention of continuing his engineering studies, he settled there in 1944, making his debut on BBC Radio two weeks later, in Calling the West Indies, a programme for listeners in the Caribbean.

[4] In 1947, during the UK tour of the Broadway hit Anna Lucasta, which starred the original African American cast with black British understudies, Pauline Henriques, Errol John, Earl Cameron, and Rita Williams, were inspired by Connor to co-found the Negro Theatre Company.

[3] Connor acted in 18 films, including his role as harpooner Daggoo in Moby Dick (1956), directed by John Huston and co-starring Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart.

In 1952, with his band "The Caribbeans" (subsequently called The Southlanders)[12] Connor recorded, according to the AllMusic website, a "groundbreaking LP of Jamaican folk music" entitled Songs from Jamaica.

Connor directed the "Caribbean Carnival" event held in London's St Pancras Town Hall at the end of January 1959, organised by fellow Trinidadian Claudia Jones, and televised by the BBC.

[18] The Edric and Pearl Connor Papers, 1941–1978,[19] were donated to the Alma Jordan Library at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, and additional material on them is housed in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.